Thursday, 9 August 2012

Blogging resources

On my first blog anniversary I wrote a post called Planet of the Blogs which included a list of blogging resources.  I wanted to share these because blogging was such a mystery when I started.  After blogging for over 5 years, it is time to provide a more comprehensive list of resources I have found.

NOTE: Over these years I have found that these resources change and move so I will try and keep it up to date as much as possible.  There are many many more resources out there but these are ones I have stumbled upon and found useful.  Suggestions or Questions are welcome.

Useful posts from Green Gourmet Giraffe

Advice for new bloggers

Copyright

Writing Recipes

Writing blogs:

Australian ingredients
Useful links with comment discussion about the difference between Australian and American ingredients:

Searching blogs

Blog event listings

Bookmarking

Book databases

Photography
There are heaps of posts giving advice on photography.  Here are a few that I have found useful:

Statistics
  • Google Analytics - free statistics software (if you are happy to share your data with Google).  It allows you to collect statistics over time.  (See How to Use Google Analytics at Social Media Examiner)
  • StatCounter – statistics software - free if you just want to see stats for the last few days but costs to see stats in more detail.
  • Technorati – I used to find out who was linking to my blog through Technorati but it changed and I found it harder to find info. I have also used Google Alerts s but it hasn't seemed so useful for this.
  • Site Meter - an audience tracking tool - I have only seen it recommended but have not looked at it myself.
  • Blogger and Wordpress also have blog statistics information as part of a blog account.

Design tools
  • Canva - a graphic design site that will help you arrange photos in a collage or do lots of interesting graphics and texts on your images (free service as far as I can see but sign up required)
  • Shabby blogs backgrounds - free backgrounds- I used this until recently but have been warned off them due to malware.  Am on the lookout for other backgrounds I really like.
  • picmonkey - I use this a lot for collages.  It also can be used to edit photos.  It is free with no sign up required for a limited package or you can pay for more sophisticated design.
  • Photosnack - I haven't used it but have seen Jac at Tinned Tomatoes using it for slideshows
  • Snapseed - digital image editing app for photos on the iphone (I haven't used it).
  • Fotor: free photo editing and collages - looks good 
  • Fotojet - another free site for photo editing and collages

Technical stuff like html and Blogger

Content theft

NOTE: While collecting links for this post, I found a useful list of resources at the Hungry Australian.

Update - I am adding a few new links here as I see them but I just saw the 150 links on How to be a Food Blogger by Recipe Girl - a great resource.
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20 comments:

  1. Wendy9 August 2012 at 23:22

    VERY useful, Johanna. Thanks for this. Will link to you later in the week as I'm sure there are lots of folk who'd find this list helpful.

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:00

      Thanks Wendy - that's great if others find this helpful

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  2. Anonymous10 August 2012 at 04:52

    wow Johanna! This is SO incredibly helpful! I seriously have spent the last 15 minutes looking at all your various links! THANK YOU!!

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:01

      thanks Gf happy tummy - I actually got caught up in reading the links when I was putting together this post - so much good info out there

      Delete
  3. Chele10 August 2012 at 05:42

    This list must have taken you quite some time to pull together. Thank you for doing all the hard graft, this is a great list of resources.

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:02

      Thanks chele - actually it didn't take me that long to put together but I have been collecting the links for a while (just had a day when I didn't have enough energy to put up a recipe so it was easier to finally put this up)

      Delete
  4. Unknown10 August 2012 at 11:54

    This is incredible - what an amazing resource. I can't wait to read all the tips (esp your own ones, even though I have pored over lots of them before). Five years is very impressive, congratulations!

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:02

      Thanks Lucy - hope you find it helpful - happy reading!

      Delete
  5. Not Quite Nigella10 August 2012 at 17:53

    This is very helpful Johanna! I wish I had found this when I first started blogging! :)

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:03

      Thanks Nigella - so do I, though I suspect a lot of this info wasn't available at the time

      Delete
  6. Kari10 August 2012 at 20:07

    This is so helpful Johanna - thank you. It's also a little daunting (I've just opened a whole the links I hadn't seen and my browser now has many, many tabs!), but some of the points you cover / mention are so important.

    Congratulations, too, on 5 years of blogging! What an amazing achievement. Your blog is certainly something to be proud of and I'm sure I'm not the only one that uses you as a 'first stop' for many things cooking and baking related :)

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:07

      Thanks Kari - oh I always have too many tabs open on my browser (even IT guys at work have commented on it). I go back to some of these links when I want some particular info so it is good for me as well to have them easily accessible - glad my info is helpful to others

      Delete
  7. Joanne10 August 2012 at 21:59

    This is so useful even if you've been blogging for a while like I have!

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:08

      Thanks Joanne - we are all still learning no matter how long we have been blogging

      Delete
  8. Caroline11 August 2012 at 03:59

    What a lovely helpful post - I wish I had known about these resources when I started. In fact, I still need to read them now, four years in!

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    1. Johanna GGG12 August 2012 at 00:08

      Thanks Caroline - if I had a list like this when I started out I would have done things differently - even now it is a lot to take in!

      Delete
  9. Ricki19 August 2012 at 12:38

    Great links--will bookmark! I also use Google Reader, but sadly they, too, are going to close down. . . I think some time in 2013. Not sure what I'll use at that point! *sob*

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    1. Johanna GGG19 August 2012 at 23:08

      Thanks Ricki - I didn't know about Google Reader - when Bloglines changed hands I had lots of links bookmarked there which made the change a bit of a nightmare but I hope I will cope with the Google reader changes better but I hate these systems changing - since the resources post I did in 2008 I have seen quite a few of these systems change so it seems inevitable

      Delete
  10. pavlova Oppskrift27 March 2015 at 09:32

    What a lovely helpful post - I wish I had known about these resources when I started. In fact, I still need to read them now, four years in!

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    1. Johanna GGG27 March 2015 at 10:07

      Thanks Pavlova - I wish I had read a lot of these links before I started blogging too! But it has been an ongoing learning process and these have helped as I go so glad they might help you too.

      Delete

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